Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook7 hours
Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez
Written by Brooke Bessesen and Carl Safina
Narrated by Xe Sands
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
In 2006, vaquita, a diminutive porpoise making its home in the Upper Gulf of California, inherited the dubious title of world's most endangered marine mammal. Nicknamed “panda of the sea” for their small size and beguiling facial markings, vaquitas have been in decline for decades, dying by the hundreds in gillnets intended for commercially valuable fish, as well as for an endangered fish called totoaba. When international crime cartels discovered a lucrative trade in the swim bladders of totoaba, illegal gillnetting went rampant, and now the lives of the few remaining vaquitas hang in the balance.
Author Brooke Bessesen takes us on a journey to Mexico's Upper Gulf region to uncover the story. She interviewed townspeople, fishermen, scientists, and activists, teasing apart a complex story filled with villains and heroes, a story whose outcome is unclear. When diplomatic and political efforts to save the little porpoise failed, Bessesen followed a team of veterinary experts in a binational effort to capture the last remaining vaquitas and breed them in captivity-the best hope for their survival. In this fast-paced, soul-searing tale, she learned that there are no easy answers when extinction is profitable.
Whether the rescue attempt succeeds or fails, the world must ask itself hard questions. When vaquita and the totoaba are gone, the black market will turn to the next vulnerable species. What will we do then?
Author Brooke Bessesen takes us on a journey to Mexico's Upper Gulf region to uncover the story. She interviewed townspeople, fishermen, scientists, and activists, teasing apart a complex story filled with villains and heroes, a story whose outcome is unclear. When diplomatic and political efforts to save the little porpoise failed, Bessesen followed a team of veterinary experts in a binational effort to capture the last remaining vaquitas and breed them in captivity-the best hope for their survival. In this fast-paced, soul-searing tale, she learned that there are no easy answers when extinction is profitable.
Whether the rescue attempt succeeds or fails, the world must ask itself hard questions. When vaquita and the totoaba are gone, the black market will turn to the next vulnerable species. What will we do then?
Related to Vaquita
Related audiobooks
Spineless Wonders: Strange Tales from the Invertebrate World On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oceana: Our Planet's Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War of the Whales: A True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Restoring the Wild: Sixty Years of Rewilding Our Skies, Woods and Waterways Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Raven's Witness: The Alaska Life of Richard K. Nelson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learning the Birds: A Midlife Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShearwater: A Bird, an Ocean, and a Long Way Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secret Life of the City: How Nature Thrives in the Urban Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fathoms: The World in the Whale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emperors of the Deep: Sharks--The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands, and Indigenous People Meet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Way: A Story of the First People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Seals Sing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World is Blue: How Our Fate and The Ocean's Are One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Watermelon Snow: Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnce a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys into the Time before Bones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5End of the Wild: Shipwrecked in the Pacific Northwest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wood for the Trees: One Man's Long View of Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Environmental Science For You
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shelter: A Love Letter to Trees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Uncertain Sea: Fear is everywhere. Embrace it. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Underland: A Deep Time Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Winter's Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Monkey Wrench Gang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Without Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silent Spring Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Maritime Archaeology (SHIPWRECKS) with Chanelle Zaphiropoulos 0% found this document usefulAcoustic Ecology: Can the sound of the Amazon help to save it? Peter Gibbs reports. 100% found this document usefulRegenerating Land in Mexico at Sanandi Farm: Working with Nature to Heal the Land 100% found this document usefulWhere the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River 100% found this document usefulSparklebuttology (FIREFLIES) with Sara Lewis 100% found this document usefulBiominerology (SHELLS) with Robert Ulrich 100% found this document usefulPlanariology (VERY COOL WORMS, I PROMISE) with Oné Pagán 100% found this document usefulOur Plant Teachers with Dr. Robin Wall KImmerer: Mending Our Relationship with the Earth 100% found this document usefulTentacle Optics of the Inept Closet Cat - A Concept’s Title - Part 1 0% found this document usefulIndigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE) with Amy Christianson 0% found this document usefulEnvironmental Law Series: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) 0% found this document usefulWomen Turned to Stone 0% found this document useful
Related articles
'A Most Remarkable Creature' Introduces The Little-Known, Charismatic Caracara NPRArticle
'A Most Remarkable Creature' Introduces The Little-Known, Charismatic Caracara
Mar 31, 2021
3 min readThe Fire Starters Audubon MagazineArticle
The Fire Starters
Oct 2, 2023
14 min readBookshelf HarrowsmithArticle
Bookshelf
Mar 15, 2021
You can actually feel and smell all of Newfoundland in Catherine Bush’s nail-biter novel Blaze Island. Though the isle in her book is fictional, it’s wholly inspired by the partridge berries, roasting eider and rotting kelp of The Rock. Grab a scratc
5 min readIn the Face of Implacable Landscapes, Natural and Viral Literary HubArticle
In the Face of Implacable Landscapes, Natural and Viral
Apr 9, 2020
7 min readWild Seas ZigzagArticle
Wild Seas
Dec 15, 2021
8 min readFinding Shangri-La Practical Boat OwnerArticle
Finding Shangri-La
Jul 8, 2021
6 min readThe Library How It WorksArticle
The Library
Oct 5, 2023
4 min readReading The Travelogues Of Percy Fawcett, Explorer Of The Lost City Of Z Literary HubArticle
Reading The Travelogues Of Percy Fawcett, Explorer Of The Lost City Of Z
Oct 6, 2020
5 min readWhat Some of the World’s Last Hunter-Gatherers Have to Say The AtlanticArticle
What Some of the World’s Last Hunter-Gatherers Have to Say
Feb 14, 2019
6 min readThe Island White HorsesArticle
The Island
Dec 15, 2019
4 min readThe Whale Who Will Come Soon NautilusArticle
The Whale Who Will Come Soon
Sep 8, 2021
The beachfront narrows to an ocherous ribbon, belted by blue, above and below. After a while, a handful of shearwaters appear in the air above the Cat Balou. The birds flash around us; like knife-thrower tricks at a circus. Diving through the water,
8 min readEverglades Passage Garden & GunArticle
Everglades Passage
May 23, 2022
5 min readPUT YOUR NOSE IN A BOOK FACT & FICTION GetawayArticle
PUT YOUR NOSE IN A BOOK FACT & FICTION
Aug 18, 2023
BY QUINTON COETZEE Jonathan Ball, RRP R280 The author of this interesting little guide knows his stuff. Raised on the fringes of the Namib Desert, Quinton has spent a lifetime in the bush and is considered one of Southern Africa's leading bushcraft a
3 min readSmall Wonder: The Challenge of Parenting Through Climate Collapse Literary HubArticle
Small Wonder: The Challenge of Parenting Through Climate Collapse
Nov 18, 2019
8 min readThe Day I Became A ‘Crocodile Man’ The Big IssueArticle
The Day I Became A ‘Crocodile Man’
Mar 21, 2022
3 min readNative Nevada Cowboys & IndiansArticle
Native Nevada
Jun 6, 2023
7 min readHook, Line, and Sinker Guernica MagazineArticle
Hook, Line, and Sinker
Jul 12, 2022
18 min readWhat We Can Learn From the Man Who Swam Five Miles With a Tiger Shark | Philip Hoare The GuardianArticle
What We Can Learn From the Man Who Swam Five Miles With a Tiger Shark | Philip Hoare
Oct 25, 2017
3 min readRescue At Sea BirdWatchingArticle
Rescue At Sea
Oct 9, 2021
10 min readWild Abandon GetawayArticle
Wild Abandon
Sep 9, 2022
2 min readEditor’s Letter Robb ReportArticle
Editor’s Letter
May 3, 2022
2 min readRats Aweigh Boating NZArticle
Rats Aweigh
Jul 24, 2019
4 min readA Group of Orca Outcasts Is Now Dominating an Entire Sea The AtlanticArticle
A Group of Orca Outcasts Is Now Dominating an Entire Sea
Jan 29, 2021
14 min readOIL & WATER White HorsesArticle
OIL & WATER
Jun 16, 2019
5 min readWhat Creature Deserves The Title Of Canada's National Animal Cottage LifeArticle
What Creature Deserves The Title Of Canada's National Animal
May 13, 2021
13 min readShell Game High Country NewsArticle
Shell Game
Apr 1, 2022
6 min readChagos And Fighting The Shameful Legacy Of Colonialism The Big IssueArticle
Chagos And Fighting The Shameful Legacy Of Colonialism
Nov 7, 2022
3 min readCottage Fears You Can See And Others That Sneak Up On You Cottage LifeArticle
Cottage Fears You Can See And Others That Sneak Up On You
Jun 24, 2021
15 min readStarshift Guernica MagazineArticle
Starshift
Sep 9, 2019
16 min readCalifornia's Lost Viking Treasure Ship NewsweekArticle
California's Lost Viking Treasure Ship
Feb 10, 2017
18 min read
Related categories
Reviews for Vaquita
Rating: 3.79999998 out of 5 stars
4/5
5 ratings0 reviews